Typically, a "beta" software item is that which is meant for evaluation, testing, or use not guaranteed by the developer of the software. If you happen to use Windows XP Service Pack 3, get ready for this: once installed over an existing older version (beta 1), Internet Explorer (IE) 8 beta 2 cannot be uninstalled, much in the same way you cannot uninstall Internet Explorer 7 on the said operating system. Only a system restoration or re-installation (if you have System Restore disabled) can fix it. What's more, Microsoft displays IE 8 beta 2 like it's the "current version" of the browser and IE 7 (final release, stable version) as a "previous version". If you happened to have IE 8 beta 1, and updated from Service Pack 2 to 3, uninstall beta 1 before "trying out" beta 2, as listed on the IEBlog at MSDN. You will be shown a confirmation dialog box before its installation:

If you chose to continue, Windows XP SP3 and IE8 Beta2 will become permanent. You will still be able to upgrade to later IE8 builds as they become available, but you won’t be able to uninstall them.

To avoid getting into this situation, we strongly encourage you to follow these steps before installing Internet Explorer Beta 2:

whats the beta 2 version like anyway to people who have/are trying it?

fancy trying it out, although dont want it if its still buggy as hell and its a ballache to remove as i have only ie7 on my pc, so getting rid (with system restore off) would be a process i dont feel the need to do especially today as ive spent about 5 hours building one pc and transferring one to a new case (i like to take my time and do wire managment )

why not just not mess around with IE cause we all know it sucks anyway. Why not just download Firefox or Opera. And whoever says that IE is faster and safer is full of sh*t and they haven't played with the extensions in firefox yet.

IE is the biggest POS ever, I had Beta 1 and I couldn't uninstall it. All images were automatically zoomed at 110% and looked fucked up. Lack of keyboard shortcuts, usability and general POSiness forces me and others to use Opera or Firefox. Quit working on IE and improve your OSes instead!!!!!!

Can we stick to contructive posts people, pleases dont start rants on which browser you prefer/hate.
Maybe some suggestions for what you'd like to see or what you think of the browsers new features.
If you dont like IE, and have nothing constructive to say, dont post!

Ok, I've installed IE8 and here's what I've found so far (in comparison to Opera):
It loads a few seconds faster from a cold start than opera.
It takes about 25-33% more time to load a web page, but that puts it in the same league as firefox for me.
Scrolling up or down is slower (remember, I have a slooooow laptop), but bearable.
RAM usage is just under twice that of Opera (52 MB compared to Opera's 28.5 MB).
The new features are actually quite useful; the Accelerators could really catch on IMO, and the web slices would be excellent for online auctions and forums.
Compatibility is almost flawless, except for youtube videos on Hack A Day.
All in all, I think its quite good.

And @ Kodlan, do you realize that one of the goals of IE8 is to become more standards compliant? You, as a developer, should be happy to see this coming down the pipeline.

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Sorry for the previous post it was a little over-excited 8).
When I hear that some M$ product is going to be "more standards compliant" it makes me a little confused =). Because you don't really know which standart they will choose. Their own or industry standarts?

And @ Kodlan, do you realize that one of the goals of IE8 is to become more standards compliant? You, as a developer, should be happy to see this coming down the pipeline.

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The rate at which they're adopting existing standards is being negated by the rate at which they're introducing new, Windows-specific, incompatible standards. As always. :shadedshu

IE8 has made some great strides towards compatibility, and I can tell there's some good people on the IE team making that happen, but it seems to me that there's higher-ups constantly forcing the adaption of things to screw up what could be a half-way decent browser.